In order to be certain of achieving an effect on the target, it has previously been necessary to group together a plurality of pieces of ordnance in batteries and utilize them simultaneously against the same target. With the advance of new so-called intelligent and possibly final phase controlled ammunition, the possibilities of effect on the target using individual or a few rounds have, however, increased to such an extent that, in future, it must be considered as substantially more attractive than before to allow pieces of ordnance to fight individually against their own targets. This fundamentally novel behavioral approach in the gunnery art is also greatly facilitated by the present invention.
History abounds in a large number of different types of ordnance pieces which have been produced, irrespective of whether they might be towed by vehicles or be self-propelled have been dependent upon the supply of shells and propellant charges via separate ammunition limbers or vehicles. Whether such pieces of ordnance were entirely loaded by hand or provided with some form of auxiliary loading system is of no major consequence in this context. Given that, moreover, the gun crew as a rule is conveyed in its own vehicle or vehicles, it has generally been necessary that several vehicles converge at the intended gun site before the actual preparations for opening of fire can begin. This naturally entails that it has always taken a certain time to discharge the first round, at the same time such accumulation of vehicles naturally increasing the risk of discovery.
In addition to the more conventional artillery of the above-intimated type, self-propelled guns have also been found primarily within armored units, these guns often being mounted on the MBT chassis which, in addition to often having been provided with its own armored carapace, also carries a complete gun crew and its own first-hand ammunition requirements. Moreover, these armored guns were also more often than not self-loading. However, such armored guns are becoming so expensive that, in all likelihood, they will never entirely supersede more conventional artillery.